Pilots group to tell plan to buy Meigs

May 22, 2003|By Jon Hilkevitch, Tribune transportation reporter.

A national pilots organization that is battling Chicago in court to reopen Meigs Field will announce a proposal Thursday for private investors to buy and operate the airfield, helping Mayor Richard Daley to finance the creation of a nature park on part of the lakefront site.

The last-ditch effort to save Meigs comes on the eve of an expected ruling Friday by a Cook County judge on whether to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Daley's abrupt shutdown of the airport in March.

The mayor indicated Wednesday that the airport-purchase proposal, which will be unveiled by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, would not reverse his decision.

"The Park District owns that land," said Daley, who nominates members of the district's board and handpicks its general superintendent.

Daley has maintained he closed Meigs because of security concerns that terrorists could use the airport as a springboard for attacks on downtown high-rises and landmarks. But the mayor also acknowledged just hours after bulldozers carved X's into Meigs' runway on March 30 that, despite an agreement he made in 2001 to keep Meigs open for up to 25 years, he had never given up on transforming the airport site into a nature sanctuary.

Phil Boyer, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, will try to make the case Thursday that Chicago would benefit under his plan to allow Meigs to continue serving the downtown business district. Selling the airport to private investors would generate money to help the cash-strapped Park District build a park on part of Northerly Island, sources close to Boyer said.

"The proposal will generate significant money for Chicago and benefits for everyone," said Warren Morningstar, the pilots association spokesman.

"It's something we think the citizens of Chicago will say makes a lot of sense."

The association has filed a separate lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Both the county and federal suits allege the city violated the state's open meetings law, failed to provide the state with proper notice before closing the runway and violated the intended use of public land.

Cook County Circuit Judge William Maki, who has granted a temporary restraining order blocking the city from further demolition at the airport, is expected to decide Friday whether the charges have merit.